CFP: Anarchism and Utopianism (1/7/06; collection)

full name / name of organization:

Laurence A Davis

contact email:

ldavis@oceanfree.net

CALL FOR PAPERS

FOR A PROPOSED EDITED COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON: ANARCHISM AND UTOPIANISM

We extend this call for papers to authors from all disciplines interested inexploring the relationship between anarchism and utopianism.The history of the relationship between anarchism and utopianism is markedby ambivalence. On the one hand, many classical anarchist thinkers such asBakunin and Kropotkin repeatedly emphasized the "scientific" character oftheir social philosophy in an effort to distance themselves from the chargeof utopianism. Likewise, most utopian authors have tended to emulate thestate-centred utopian model propagated by Plato and More rather than themore libertarian example of de Foigny, Diderot, and Morris. On the otherhand, a number of more contemporary anarchist utopian writers haveexplicitly questioned the mutual exclusivity of anarchism and utopianism.Herbert Read, for example, vigorously defended libertarian utopian thinkingin his book *Anarchy and Order*, Paul Goodman consistently championed apragmatic form of utopianism that had a tremendous influence on thecounter-culture of the 1960s, and Ursula K. Le Guin published in 1974 thefirst anarchist utopia. Far from being merely of literary or historicalinterest, related elements of both the anarchist and utopian traditions havecontinued to inspire and inform a range of contemporary radical socialmovements, including global anti-capitalism, ecologism, feminism, pacifism,post-colonialism, and black, gay, and indigenous liberation.

In *Anarchism and Utopianism*, the first ever collection of original essaysdevoted to an assessment of the relationship between these two importanttraditions, we aim to fill a significant gap in the scholarly literature andto encourage further reflection on the as yet untapped revolutionarypotential of anarchist utopianism. We welcome papers that address any aspectof the subject, whether the focus is philosophical (for example, to whatextent and in what precise ways are anarchist and utopian ideascompatible?), literary (anarchism and utopianism in the work of Morris,Wilde, or Le Guin, for instance; what might an anarchist society look andfeel like?), historical (the legacy of anarchist utopianism in the ParisCommune, the Spanish Revolution, the May 1968 uprisings, etc.), sociological(anarchist utopian perspectives on work, consumerism, war, gender,sexuality, race, education, art, spirituality, technology, and ecology),anthropological (what can anarchist utopians learn from actually existingstateless and marketless societies? does the idea of primitivism have a roleto play in the construction of anarchist utopias?), or political (therelationship of means to ends, and anarchist utopianism as revolutionarypractice and vital response to some of the most pressing problems of thecontemporary world).

If you are interested in contributing to the volume, please e-mail to bothof the editors by January 7, 2006 an essay title, c. 500-word proposal, anda very brief list of your relevant publications. Note that contributors tothe collection may also have the opportunity - subject to the final approvalof the USSE conference programme chair - to present their work at theSeventh Annual Conference of the Utopian Studies Society Europe, to be heldin July 2006 in the historical port city of Tarragona, Spain.

Dr. Laurence DavisLaurence Davis has taught political theory at Oxford University andUniversity College Dublin, and is the editor (with Peter Stillman) of *TheNew Utopian Politics of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed* (LexingtonBooks, 2005).E-mail: ldavis_at_oceanfree.net